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"The tourist complex is terribly degraded," admitted 60-year-old Karim Turki, who has spent nearly half his life running communications for the state-run complex. Standing in front of a bungalow festooned with torn electric wires, he lamented a "paradise lost".

Piles of garbage, drained swimming pools and a merry-go-round featuring limbless horses create the impression of a ghost town.

Under the American occupation, armed extremist groups in 2006 and 2007 installed operations rooms in the sprawling complex's deserted hotel and bungalows.

Iraq's police retook control in 2008, and the resort staged a brief revival - amateur jet skiers returned to the still-sparkling lake and families enjoyed picnics on the shore.

In a bid to attract a rush of new foreign visitors, a Turkish firm was contracted to revive the facilities around the vast artificial lake, which was created in 1956, but it was all in vain. After a few months, the firm threw in the towel.

The zone became a new theatre of sectarian violence, culminating in the Islamic State group taking control. During the Iraqi army's long offensive to dislodge IS, the state requisitioned the resort's 500 bungalows and 265-room hotel to accommodate some of those displaced by the latest round of conflict.

While the government declared victory over the jihadists in December and Iraqi tourism has begun to revive, the days of access roads to Habbaniyah being clogged with traffic jams are long gone.

But there has been a trickle of visitors - some keen to cool off briefly in the summer heat, others seeking a longer trip down memory lane. "People come to Habbaniyah today to remember the good old times," Mr Turki said.

Saad Alani honeymooned on the lake in the early 1990s, during its golden age. He ventured back last year - a mistake, he said. "The place has become a dump. There is no water or electricity, and no service," he told AFP.

He is not the only one to be disappointed. "This is the last time I come," said Hussein Jabbar, a civil servant from Baghdad, visiting with a dozen friends. "Before, it was great - but everything has deteriorated," he added, pointing to the lifeless lake banks where amateur sailors and flunkies once roamed. AFP